Knickerbonkers

There was a "red wave" in one part of the United States - ultra-Democratic New York, where bad decisions and plain damn hubris may have been instrumental in giving control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans.  The two top Katzenjammers responsible for the Empire State Screw-Up were former governor Andrew Cuomo and future former U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney.

Cuomo (above) set the stage by appointing justices to the state Supreme Court in a transactional move to reward those who had done favors for him or who had been loyal to him.  Many of these judges were center-right, appointed by Cuomo in an effort in get back at progressives in the state legislature.  It was these same justices who ruled a redistricting map for the 2022 midterm elections unconstitutional because it created gerrymandered districts favorable to Democrats - but liberal justices might have ruled it constitutional for correcting excesses of Republican gerrymandering from the previous redistricting.

Even worse, Cuomo allowed a U.S. House district to be eliminated when the 2020 census count came of 89 people short - 89 people! - of the minimum number of residents needed to preserve that seat.  The governor could have asked for a recheck on that count that could have saved that district, but he couldn't be bothered. 

Maloney screwed things up just as much - if not more so, in part because he pushed for the gerrymandered House district map that got overruled.  Stingy with his support for Democratic House candidates as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (the name suggests a committee aimed at all of Congress, but it just concentrates on the House), he was generous to his own campaign while collaborating with New York Republicans to further his own political career.  (Alexis Grenell explains it in The Nation better than I could.)   

To hold on to power, he chose to run in another district rather than his own, forcing Democratic Representative Mondaire Jones out of the way.  Alessandra Biaggi, a New York state senator who is the granddaughter of a revered New York congressman, challenged Maloney as a progressive but lost to the dyed-in-the-wool centrist incumbent.  Maloney had hoped to take advantage of liberal voters in counties east of the Hudson River.  The problem was the district's constituents who live west of the Hudson River - in Rockland County.  To give you an idea of how conservative Rockland County is, I have a friend who lives there and grows her own vegetables, has supported the Green Party, sent her kids to a Waldorf school, and keeps chickens for fresh eggs.  She's practically an organic-farm hippie.  She's also a Trump fan.  

Oh, yeah, Rockland County is also known for being home to New York City police officers and ultra-Orthodox Jews.  It was this conservative bloc that helped Republican House candidate Mike Lawler defeat Maloney in the general election by a narrow margin.  By all accounts, Biaggi - who was endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - could have saved the seat for the Democrats by arousing their base, but the Democratic base in this district was clearly cool to (to, not with) voting for Maloney for his past conniving.

Andrew Cuomo and Sean Patrick Maloney lied and cheated to get to the top.  They now know what a downfall looks like.  Hopefully a certain developer from Queens will find out as well.